History Author Show

June 12, 2017 - This week, we'll visit the turbulent 1960s after President John F. Kennedy's assassination. Once there, we'll witness his younger brother and attorney general, Robert F. Kennedy, charting his own political path forward. With his foe LBJ in the White House, and only 38 years old, Bobby no longer has JFK's career to put first, but his own.

Our guide on this journey of discovery is reporter, historian, and television news producer John R. Bohrer, who's here to share his book: The Revolution of Robert Kennedy - From Power to Protest After JFK. You can follow him on Twitter @JRBOH, or visit JohnRBohrer.com.

June 5, 2017 - This day after this episode airs is June 6th, the anniversary of the D-Day landings in 1944. This week, our time machine hits those bloody beaches of Normandy, where we'll meet the oldest man and highest-ranking officer to go ashore with the first wave: General Ted Roosevelt, Jr.

As the oldest son of President Theodore Roosevelt, Ted had the name, the looks, the expectations -- and the pressure that literally gave him headaches as a young man. So how did Ted avoid the pitfalls of that upbringing, to attain success in business, laurels in the First World War, and that crowning moment on D-Day, actions which earned him the Congressional Medal of Honor?

Here to introduce us to the younger Theodore Roosevelt is Tim Brady, author of His Father's Son: The Life of General Ted Roosevelt, Jr. Tim Brady is a Peabody Award-winning writer whose works include Twelve Desperate Miles and A Death in San Pietro. He has written a number of PBS documentaries, and helped develop the series Liberty! The American Revolution. Check out his author pages at Amazon and Penguin Random House.

May 29, 2017 - We're uploading this episode for Memorial Day 2017, to pay tribute to the men and women who gave their lives in service to the United States. Leading us on this trip into the past, is Kevin C. Fitzpatrick, a licensed New York City Sightseeing Guide, United States Marine veteran, and author of World War I New York: A Guide to the City's Enduring Ties to the Great War.

World War I has deep roots in the Empire State, which sent more men to fight than the other stars on the flag. Next-door New Jersey played a big role, as well, including Dean's hometown of Cresskill, which was home to the sprawling Camp Merritt. When those men shipped out, they rode the rail line to Hoboken, a prime embarkation point for the doughboys, leading to General Pershing's slogan that they'd be in "Heaven, Hell or (back home in) Hoboken" by Christmas.

The area remained an important hub for men, prisoners of war, and recruiting throughout the conflict. Following the Armistice in 1918, the city sought to remember those who lost their lives over there, and erected more memorials for this event than any other. To mark the centennial of the fight against the Central Powers, we'll explore the legacy of the War to End All Wars, in 21st Century Gotham.

You can find this week's guest at FitzpatrickAuthor.com, or at K72ndSt on Twitter. His previous books including The Governors Island Explorer’s Guide and The Algonquin Round Table New York: A Historical Guide.

May 22, 2017 - This week, our time machine visits a small Jersey Shore town with big White House history. The spot is The Church of the Presidents in Long Branch, a spot where seven commanders-in-chief vacationed in the Gilded Age.

They started coming to the beach with the man who crushed the Confederacy, General Ulysses S. Grant, and continued through five of the next six -- Rutherford B. Hayes, James Garfield, Chester A. Arthur, Benjamin Harrison, and William McKinley. The last man to attend services, also served as New Jersey governor: Thomas Woodrow Wilson.

In the Victorian Era, the sea air was believed to have such rejuvenating powers, that President Garfield was brought to a cottage across from the Church of the Presidents, after being shot by the unhinged Charlie Guiteau. Unfortunately, the cure failed, and Garfield died nearby on September 19, 1881.

Presiding over this week's journey is Jim Foley, president of the Long Branch Historical Museum Association, headquartered at the Church of the Presidents. You can read more about their work to preserve the history of this New Jersey history gem, at ChurchOfThePresidents.org, and keep tabs on their historical events such as their cocktail party fundraiser in August 2017, by liking their Facebook page.

May 15, 2017 - This week, for our 100th interview, our time machine visits some of the most heated fighting -- political and on the battlefield -- during the American Civil War. We'll experience the great conflagration through the eyes of a soldier and his young love, whose father just happens to be a Democratic state senator, who begins to doubt Lincoln's war effort as it drags on year after year.

Letters aren't rare from the American Civil War. But what is rare -- very rare -- is to have both sides of a correspondence preserved. Into this historical void steps today's guest, Gene Barr, who benefited from the chance discovery of love letters from young Jennie Lindsay and her soldier in Union blue, Irish immigrant Josiah Moore. This treasure-trove also included pictures, and gives us a full picture of a romance that adds tremendously to the historical record.

Gene Barr's book is, A Civil War Captain and His Lady: Love, Courtship, and Combat From Fort Donelson through the Vicksburg Campaign. You can find him on Twitter @GeneBarr_55, or at Facebook.com/JosiahAndJennie.

May 8, 2017 - This week, our time machine hoists the Jolly Roger, that notorious black flag with a skull and crossbones that sent shivers down the spine of God-fearing men and woman on the high seas. Shortly after we set sail, we'll meet Massachusetts fisherman Philip Ashton, whose capture and escape from pirates, earned him status as America’s real-life Robinson Crusoe.

We'll also cross swords with Ashton's nemesis, the pirate Edward Low. He's forgotten today, but in the 1720's, Low surpassed even the infamous Blackbeard, capturing more plunder and killing more people -- often after horrifically torturing them first.

Our captain on these treacherous seas is Greg Flemming, author of Boston Globe bestseller, At the Point of a Cutlass: The Pirate Capture, Bold Escape, and Lonely Exile of Philip Ashton. You can get to know him by paying a visit to GregFlemming.com, @Flemming_Greg, or Facebook.com/Point of the Cutlass.

May 1, 2017 - This week, our time machine touches down at the height of the Red Scare, in the Oval Office of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, whose public stance of ignoring Senator Joseph McCarthy's descent into demagoguery -- refusing even to mention his name -- has long been cited by historians as proof that the old World War Two general just didn't care.

Some even dared call the former Supreme Allied commander, a coward.

After his death, Ike's strategy would be revealed and dubbed "the hidden hand." He felt that to attack McCarthy straight-on would raise his statue within the Republican party and the nation, and ultimately be counterproductive. The book that sets the record straight is Ike and McCarthy: Dwight Eisenhower's Secret Campaign against Joseph McCarthy, by David A. Nichols, a leading expert on the Eisenhower presidency.

You can dig into our guest's other works and thoughts on history, on Twitter @DavidANichols8.

April 24, 2017 - This week's episode airs on Holocaust Remembrance Day, and features debut novelist Barbara Stark-Nemon's ambitious novel, Even in Darkness. Spanning a century and three continents, Barbara tells the story of her real-life great-aunt, Kläre Kohler, from early years in a prosperous German-Jewish family, through an adulthood of love, two World Wars, a concentration camp, and an unconventional life in post-war Germany.

Barbara earned an undergraduate degree in English literature and Art History -- and a Masters in Speech-language Pathology -- from the University of Michigan, which led to a teaching and clinical career. But all along, she's wanted to tell a story -- and readers are fortunate that she did, as evidenced by the stack of awards Even in Darkness has racked up since publication.

You can find our guest at BarbaraStarkNemon.com, @BStarkNemon on Twitter, and Facebook.com/StarkNemon.

April 17, 2017 - This week, our time machine attends the Gilded Age performances of a man who heralded the Borscht Belt, Vaudeville, and paved the way for performers from Mel Brooks to Barbra Streisand and Jerry Seinfeld. He did so by performing Jewish characters -- for the first time -- with dignity, humor, and emotional depth.

Born in 1849, M.B. Curtis gained worldwide fame -- and as an immigrant himself, reached into his own pocket to illuminate the Statue of Liberty when the U.S. government wouldn't foot the bill. Our guide on this journey is Richard Schwartz, author of the previous works Earthquake Exodus, 1906; Eccentrics, Heroes, and Cutthroats of Old Berkeley; The Circle of Stones: An Investigation of the Circle of Stones in Stampede Valley, Sierra County, and, Berkeley 1900.

Visit him at RichardSchwartz.info.

Thanks to singer-songwriter Val Hovik for supplying the original song Liberty Shine off his Listen to Me Now Album. If you dig the tune, pick up the single or the Album on Amazon, visit ValHovik.com.

April 10, 2016 - This week, our time machine visits the era of silent film stars with Laini Giles, author of The It Girl and Me: A Novel of Clara Bow. Even if you've never heard of Clara Bow, you'll stop and take notice the moment you saw her. She had "it," which is something more than sex appeal, more than talent -- an undefinable and mysterious quality that you can't create, borrow, or steal.

But Clara's stardom didn't erase her hardscrabble upbringing in Brooklyn, or ensure her transition to the talking pictures, where she suffered from "mic fright." Nor did it spare our narrator, Daisy DeVoe, from her own wild ride in Claraworld.

Laini Giles previously joined us to chat about her novel, The Forgotten Flapper, the first in her Forgotten Actress series. Catch that interview in our archives at HistoryAuthor.com, or wherever you're listening, and visit Laini on Twitter @4GottenFlapper, or at LainiGiles.com.